


I Didn't Sign Up For This

by DualWieldingCousland (DualWieldingMama)



Series: When Life Gives You a Blight ... [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 21:23:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5180234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DualWieldingMama/pseuds/DualWieldingCousland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regan survived the joining and now she and Alistair are working their way up the Tower of Ishal to light the beacon.  Unfortunately, things don’t go quite as planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Didn't Sign Up For This

Well, this certainly hadn’t been what she thought it would be.  She had thought joining the grey wardens would be less … deadly.  Sure, fighting darkspawn was dangerous, but she thought that would be the only thing she needed to worry about.  But no; they’d lost two recruits before they were even officially wardens!  They’d fought through what felt like thousands of darkspawn both in the field and in the tower; there weren’t supposed to be any in the tower, dammit.  Now, she, Jasper and Alistair were sprinting up what seemed like the hundredth set of stairs in the tower to light the signal for Loghain’s troops to charge.  

Well, Jasper was sprinting.  Regan and Alistair were moving at a slower pace, each footstep a little slower than the last.  “If I had known there were going to be this many steps,” she muttered, wiping sweat … and a little blood, from her brow, “I would have left the armor behind; just done this in my blasted smalls.”  She was completely unaware that she’d said that loud enough for her companion to hear.

He felt his ears grow warm at her words, trying not to picture just that.  Alistair was pretty sure that he’d have had the same reaction if anyone had said such a thing, but he was kind of glad it had been her.  She was much nicer to imagine in such a state than any of the male wardens.  He cleared his throat, chuckled.  “I don’t want to hear it, young lady.  At least you’re not doing this in metal armor.”  She was right, though.  There were a lot of steps.  It kind of reminded him of his time training.  Maybe it was a rule … all towers needed a crap-ton of steps?

She froze, blushed bright red when she realized he’d heard her.  “S- … sorry.”  She couldn’t think of anything else to say that wouldn’t sound just as … embarrassing.  She reached up, tucked a stray hair behind her ear and tried to come up with something … anything … witty to distract him, but couldn’t.

But maybe it didn’t matter.  They’d reached the final door; the signal flare was on the other side.  All they had to do was light it, and they were home fr-.

“How in the blazes did that thing get up here?”  Regan stared at the creature in front of her.  It had its back to them, currently crouched down.  She thought she could hear … crunching.  “What is that thing?”  She felt Jasper crowd next to her; tense and ready to spring into action at her command.  “I don’t remember signing up for this.”

“That … is an ogre,” Alistair whispered, gripping his sword a little tighter.  “Ugly bastard.”  He had no idea what to do.  The other wardens had told him of ogres, said it usually took at least four experienced wardens to down one.  They currently had half that many … and a warhound, and none of them had any experience against something this big.  He glanced over at her, saw her hands gripping her blades tighter than could possibly be healthy, saw them shake a little with what he could only assume was nerves.  “Regan,” he called out in a hushed voice.  “Please don’t get close to that thing?  Can you … can you stay back and try to shoot it with arrows?”  He tried to make it sound confident, sure … like an order, but knew it came out as little more than a question.  He knew he hadn’t given her much reason to trust in his leadership abilities, but he hoped she’d listen.

“Good ….”  She swallowed nervously, sheathing her blades and drawing her bow.  “Good idea.”  Normally, she preferred the up-close combat her blades allowed, but … that thing was huge.  She could easily fit in one hand and be rendered squished.  Squished was not on her list of things to be.  Of course, she didn’t want Alistair or Jasper getting squished either.  She just hoped the arrows she’d managed to collect would be enough to keep that thing busy.  “Be … careful, both of you.  

She took a breath, made a slight gesture against Jasper’s side, and took off running, ducking behind several crates that had somehow not been smashed … yet.  If she could stay out of sight … out of reach ….  Hadn’t that been what Nate had told her when he’d started teaching her how to use the bow?  Distance was your friend, gave you time….  It also gave too many opportunities to miss.  She couldn’t miss, not here … not now.  With a shaky breath, she nocked an arrow and took aim.  If she could just … hit that thing’s eye, or maybe its throat?  How thick was ogre-hide anyway?  Would her arrows even be able to make it through to do any damage?  Would Alistair’s sword, or Jasper’s claws?

Jasper attacked.  Alistair attacked.  She fired, taking her time to aim as best she could until the creature managed to get ahold of her mabari, lifting him up and preparing to do Maker-knew-what.   Panicked, Regan just started loosing arrows, praying she didn’t hit her dog … or Alistair; she just wanted the damned thing to drop Jasper.  

It did, and she did the stupidest thing she could think of.  When Jasper hit the ground with a whimper and didn’t get up right away, she threw the bow aside and leapt over the crates.  She charged, screaming furiously.  She didn’t care that she was running at a giant creature that could crush her without a thought.  All she cared about was reaching her dog.  It hadn’t even occurred to her that she might just need her blades.  And then she reached him, looking over her shoulder to see the ogre’s massive hand moving in their direction.

Alistair whipped his head around at the scream, staring as he watched her run toward the ogre empty-handed.  Why wasn’t she carrying her bow?  Why weren’t her blades in her hands?  What in the Maker’s name was she doing?  He turned back to the ogre just in time to be swatted away, though it wasn’t nearly as forceful as it should have been.  Rubbing his hand along the armor over his shoulder, he groaned.  The creature’s attention was on her; that was why he was only knocked into the wall instead of flying through it.  He couldn’t let it hurt her.  He just … couldn’t.  

With energy he wasn’t sure he had, he sprinted forward, threw his shield off to the side, used the ogre’s own calf as a springboard and leapt up, plunging his sword into the creature’s back.  He held onto the darkspawn’s makeshift armor as it reared up, cast around trying to reach him.  With a grunt, he pulled his blade free, clambered around enough to thrust it back in, this time through the chest and then a third time through the skull before it fell.  He jumped to the floor, gasping, hands coming to rest on his knees as he tried to breathe.  He’d just … they’d just killed an ogre.  Was the mabari alive?  Was she OK?  Maker, please tell him they were all ok.

Regan stared as the creature fell.  Her eyes fell on Alistair even as her mabari started to stir.  She felt Jasper rise, slowly but not in pain, and gave him a tight hug before pushing to her feet.  A step … two … three, toward Alistair and the fallen ogre, and then she was sprinting, leaping at him with a sob.  Her arms wrapped around him in a tight hug just long enough for his arms to break through the surprise and slide around her.  She kissed his cheek, whispered “That was masterful,” in his ear before he reminded her that they needed to light the beacon, words coming out in a nervous stammer.

She grabbed a candle from the only stand that hadn’t fallen over and tossed it onto the pile of wood.  She leaned against Jasper, waiting for the feel of his fur against her hand to calm her.  She smiled awkwardly as Alistair came over to join her, standing almost close enough to touch.

He stopped just short of reaching for her.  He wanted to … he wanted to continue that hug; it’d felt nice.  And, to be honest, right then he figured he needed something to remind him that they were both still alright.  But her mabari seemed to have other ideas.  Jasper shifted just enough so that no matter where Alistair tried to go, there was a fur barrier between the two humans.  

The warden was about to say something when the door leading out of the tower burst open and a small horde of darkspawn burst through.  No one had a chance to do more than turn to look at the door before arrows went flying.  Jasper was too weak to fight.  Regan had nothing to deflect the projectiles.  Alistair’s shield was somewhere on the other side of the room.  He watched Jasper fall, then Regan.  As he reached out for her, he felt one last jolt of pain before blackness engulfed him.


End file.
